ATHENS, Greece — The mistakes were so minor. Carly Patterson's foot scraping the lower of the uneven bars. Courtney Kupets' tumbling pass that ended here instead of there. Mohini Bhardwaj's slight stumble on the beam.
They're the kind of errors only judges see, little things that seem so inconsequential. But those mistakes add up, and they cost the U.S. gymnastics team a gold medal.
The Americans settled for silver Tuesday night, done in as much by their own sloppiness as Romania's sheer superiority. Their errors in every event cost them valuable fractions of points. They finished with 113.584, just behind the Romanians, who won their second straight gold medal. Russia won the bronze.
Silver is nothing to be ashamed of, of course. The U.S. men won one Monday night and were positively giddy. And it's far better than leaving empty-handed, which the U.S. women did in Sydney for the first time since 1976.
But these women are world champions, winners of every international meet they've entered since 2002 and perhaps the best team the United States has ever put on the floor. This was supposed to be their coronation.
"We made small mistakes," said renowned coach Bela Karolyi, a native Romanian whose wife Martha is the U.S. team coordinator. "Small mistakes are to be paid for. And we paid."
The Americans knew it. After Patterson closed out the team's night with a saucy, sassy floor routine that had the Olympic Indoor Hall rocking, she and her teammates sat somberly on the sideline as the Romanians took the floor.
The team, which finished second to the United States at last summer's world championships, needed to average only 9.35 points per routine to catch the Americans. Easily done.
Daniela Sofronie soared above the floor on her tumbling passes, flying so high fans sitting in the first few rows had to look up to see her.
Catalina Ponor, the final Romanian, brought the crowd to its feet with one of the finest routines of the night. Technically perfect, she stuck her landings with sureness and confidence. Her teammates were already hugging each other and crying when her music stopped, and Ponor sprinted off the mat with a grin on her face. Even Karolyi had to applaud.
The Americans, meanwhile, sat glumly in their seats. A few clapped. Most simply stared ahead, perhaps thinking about all the wasted opportunities.
They started strong, fixing problems they'd had on vault in the preliminaries. Then they moved to their best event, the uneven bars.
But Patterson, normally at her best under pressure, faltered. Flying from the low bar, she landed too close to the high bar and hit it at a dead stop. With no momentum at all, she had to muscle her way up to a handstand, but it was slow and looked awkward. With her rhythm off, she clipped the low bar on her next swing around, and even the crowd winced.
Visibly upset, Patterson hurried to the sideline and plopped into a chair after seeing her score of 9.287. Evgeny Marchenko, her coach, tried to console her with a pep talk and a pat on the back, but Patterson was having none of it, her lips pursed and face pinched.
Terin Humphrey and Kupets, however, bailed her out. Kupets, the world champion on bars in 2002, flits and flies with the ease of a bird. When she hit the mat with a solid thud, she arched her back, puffed out her chest and grinned so brightly she could have lit up the arena had the lights gone out. Her score of 9.662 lifted the Americans into first place.
Then came the balance beam — Romania's best event. The Americans needed to be perfect to maintain their lead, but started in a hole when Kupets was pulled out of the lineup with a sore right leg.
Bhardwaj replaced her, and gave a clutch performance on short notice. She landed three straight back handsprings as if she was on flat ground. And she did a back aerial somersault from a standing position easier than most people can do a cartwheel. Her dismount was nearly perfect. Racing down the beam while her teammates chanted, "Go, Mo!" Bhardwaj launched herself into the air and did two back somersaults before landing perfectly, her feet sinking into the mat.
But she made several slight errors, including cutting out one move after wobbling on the landing of a somersault, and they were reflected in her 9.4 score.
That dropped the Americans behind the Romanians heading into the final rotation. They still had a chance at gold, but quickly gave it away.
Prancing and dancing to an infectious percussive beat, Kupets had the audience clapping along. She was grinning, clearly having fun, until it was time to do what looks like a simple dance move. Spinning in place, Kupets lost her balance and stumbled out of the pirouette. The crowd gasped, her smile disappeared.
Such a little error, such a big price.